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In honor of Food Network Star contestant Nikki Martin, who was sadly eliminated in last week’s episode, the kittensharks have created a recipe for a martini with grilled. We forgot to bring our gin to the tiki bar, so it was made with vodka. Half-assed recipe follows:

Every Taco Tuesday needs a special taco, and I enjoy finding new and exciting ways to celebrate said fun day. As a vegetarian, people tend to think the options are fairly limited, but they have come a long way from the once glorious, single delight of Taco Bell releasing the potato soft taco (and gotten better for you, I might add).

My favorite thing about this recipe is switching out sour cream for fat free plain Greek Yogurt. The texture is velvety and the nutrition is great, not to mention the (I think) better taste.

Once in a while, the “NEED TO BAKE NEED TO BAKE NEED TO BAKE” urge takes me over. Usually I’ll just make some cupcakes or something, but sometimes I want to try something new and different, especially if it will please a friend. Fellow kittenshark Ashley loves cheesecake, and it just so happened that when I had this urge to bake something, it was almost Nick’s birthday; he also loves cheesecake. Settled. Gotta make cheesecake.

Since I’d never made a cheesecake before, I scoured the internet for the right recipe for me, and because I knew I wanted to make mini versions, I ended up using one I found at a wonderful site and only slightly adapting it. Since she said it best, please check out Annie’s Eats for the full recipe.

A cupcake. (Phone pic.)

The adaptations I made were using Chocolate graham cracker crumbs instead of chocolate cookie crumbs (I don’t like Oreos), Natural Balance Vegan Buttery Spread instead of butter, Egg Beaters Egg Whites instead of Eggs and no salt. It was still pretty tasty! In fact, Ashely said, “This might be the best dessert I’ve ever had.”

I baked 4 mini cheesecakes in glass ramekin and made cupcakes out of the rest. With future cheesecakes, I hope to have a more attractive looking final product, but all the different crap about how to know when your cheesecake is done had me pretty spooked.

If you want the recipe for the ganache seen in the first picture, click here.

This is by far my favorite Half-assed Recipe yet. I love sandwiches and I love tiny versions of things, so this is a no brainer. Obviously, you can substitute real meat for the vegetarian kind I use, but if you haven’t tried these delicious fake chicken nuggets yet, I strongly encourage you to give them a shot. They are soy free and tasty!

This post will include three different recipes: one for the bread, one for the fries and one for an aioli. Half-assed recipe follows:

Susan, one of my best friends and a fellow kittenshark, can’t have gluten. This is sad because most of the delicious foods seem to be riddled with it. Everyone take a minute to reflect on how it sucks to be allergic to gluten. Okay, thanks. Anyway, since she recently sent me a care package and I have one to send her, aaaaand her birthday is coming up, I wanted to create a special treat that is delicious, easy to make and safe for the Suze to eat.

Nick and I set out to bake them tonight, and we were delighted with the final product. These cookies are not only Suze-safe, but also almost criminally easy to make and very tasty.

Tonight, we ate magic- magic in the form of pasta and veggies in a light, delicious sauce. Mmm, mmm, good. This is something I threw together randomly, so it is a fairly versatile recipe you can change as you see fit. I imagine it would be good with fish or chicken if you are hip to that stuff; if you try it that way, let me know! This dish was tangy and sweet and good all over; I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

On average, I spend about 2-3 weeks at a time in Washington, DC then return home for 2-3 weeks, then go back. During the time in DC, Nick and I enjoy making a variety of recipes– some old favorites and some new ideas. Most recently, there was a day on which we could not decide what to eat that evening. Neither of us wanted anything too heavy, but we didn’t feel like just having bread and salad, either. Then, like a unicorn comes to a fair maiden, an idea casually trotted up to me and whinnied: chicken salad. PERFECT. A deliciously light, simple recipe into which one can put pretty much anything one likes.

One might think that as a vegetarian, I am unable to enjoy the deliciousness of chicken salad, and one would be mistaken. As I have mentioned before, there is a plethora of meat substitute products that have decent nutrition and great flavor (enough even to please Nick, who is a happy meat-eater). Whether you use real chicken or fake, I hope you enjoy this recipe.

It’s Friday. Friday is almost everyone’s favorite thing to thank God for, even before loved ones and not accidentally hitting that pedestrian who was walking in the crosswalk because you were too busy trying to figure out what that crap under your nails was or if the people at your important lunch meeting noticed it. (Well? There aren’t any casual dining establishments called TGI Spouse or TGI Didn’t Accidentally Hit that Pedestrian etc.)

One of the reasons Nick and I look forward to Fridays is that we get to have our favorite decadent treat, baked brie with champagne, and not feel too bad about over-indulging. We can worry about that on Saturday because there’s nothing else to do besides feel bad about ourselves and watch the Food Network all day. These delicious brie cups are easy to make, completely customizable and delicious to the last bite! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

This isn’t really a recipe because I just used boxed Pillsbury Funfetti mix and pre-made vanilla icing (although I usually prefer this recipe from Alton Brown, but Nick doesn’t have a mixer and I am lazy). I wanted to make some cuppy cakes for Nick because he is sweet, and likes them. We threw some caramel filled Hershey’s Kisses in the middle and frosted them into deliciousness.

I think if I made them again, I would just use some caramel squares because I’m not sure the chocolate inside really works as great as just caramel would. We’ll see.

The soup. This pic doesn't have a lot of broth in it because I ate a lot of it already.

Tonight I made delicious soup. I’d never tried to make chicken soup since I don’t eat meat, but, as I have previously mentioned, I really enjoy the Quorn brand fake chicken products. Anyway, I wanted soup and I was wondering around Whole Foods, so I threw some shit together (which is usually how I cook- paying almost no attention to important things like measurements and recipes) and it ended up being super delicious.